Thursday, August 23, 2012

Review of Hotel Riviera in Évora, Portugal

I described in an earlier post the unpleasant happenstance which led us to the Hotel Riviera in the town of Évora, Portugal. Luckily, Hotel Riviera quickly turned that day around for us. You can judge a book by its cover in this case, because it attracted my eye from down the street with its cute wrought iron balconies, fresh yellow paint, and welcoming entrance. To our relief, there were two double rooms available for 71€ each and they were right next door to each other so we didn't have to worry about being too far from the kids.

What was so delightful about checking into the hotel was the kind gentleman at the reception desk. He told me immediately that he was happy to rent me the rooms but he wanted to show them to me first. He bolted up the stairs and told me to follow him. (No elevator - downside for the disabled and those with lots of luggage.) The rooms were lovely - I couldn't understand what he was concerned about - but then he opened the window and pointed outside down below. A nightclub. He was seriously apologetic and tried to explain in broken English that the windows were double-paned and eliminated much of the noise but we would hear music until 2 a.m. (Only 2 a.m.? They don't party until the wee hours in Portugal like the Spanish?) I wasn't worried about it since I wear earplugs every night, and I figured my kids would be too tired to notice. My husband probably wouldn't go to bed until 2:00 a.m. anyway. We gladly rented the rooms.

Our room with queen bed.

The kid's room with twin beds.

In the lobby of the hotel lurks a little history: a portion of an excavated ancient Roman wall encased behind glass (to the left of the stairs) which the receptionist was very proud of and told us what he could about it, again in his best English.

Hotel Riviera also has a pretty breakfast room (buffet breakfast not included in room rate) decorated with antique Portuguese furnishings and a comfortable reading room with an original vaulted brick ceiling.

Breakfast room.

Reading room.

Roman Temple of Diana in Évora.

Hotel Riviera offers free parking right around the corner near the cathedral in an open parking lot in a very safe location. That evening we strolled over to the Templo de Diana, the ancient Roman temple in Évora and took some photos, had dinner in a diner-style restaurant, and wondered why the town was so empty of young people on a warm summer evening. It seemed only old folks were sitting around the local square. When we got back to the Hotel Riviera we figured out why: every young person in the entire city was at the nightclub beneath our windows. (I still highly recommend the hotel, though. The sound was muffled and none of us had any trouble sleeping. Certainly you could request a room on the other side of the hotel.)